I don't know specifically about the 6, but a good rangefinder will typically have two adjustments - call them slope and intercept. If they're not both in alignment, you could easily have focus match between two bodies at one point but be off everywhere else.

If they're not both in alignment, you could easily have focus match between two bodies at one point but be off everywhere else.

This is exactly what's wrong. What causes this? I don't understand. You would think if both bodies are aligned for a lens on infinity that they would both focus toward minimal focus at the same pace, and be in the same point at the same time.

Yea but if on one camera body it's telling you something is 7 feet away and you put that lens on the other camera and it's telling you it's 6 1/2 feet away, what accounts for the half foot difference?

Is it the camera body that is telling you this?

Or is it the numbers on the lens barrel of the lens (which I am assuming for the first camera happen to agree with your tape measure)?

Personally, I wouldn't overly trust those lens barrel numbers.

Matt

“Photography is a complex and fluid medium, and its many factors are not applied in simple sequence. Rather, the process may be likened to the art of the juggler in keeping many balls in the air at one time!”

Ansel Adams, from the introduction to The Negative - The New Ansel Adams Photography Series / Book 2

Brian, one thing you are overlooking... The lens barrel itself may show 7'... It might be slightly off either way. Secondly, each body could reflect different readings because the little lever that engages the lens could be off also..... While I understand you want to be abe to interchange the lenses. That is something that might be more trouble than it's worth. In an ideal world, they 'should' be the same, but in reality, with tolerance differences, that will NOT be the case. An easy compromise would be to split the difference somewhere in between each and stop down. As others have said, try using a ground glass screen with the back open to truly check focus. It could be that the rangefinders on both are accurate, but the lens barrel does not reflect that and that's something that might not be adjustable.

No, this has nothing to do with the lens barrel or tape measures. I know from shooting camera 1 that with my 150 I can focus far, middle and very close up, anywhere with complete accuracy. So knowing that, when I take the lens off camera 1 and put it on camera 2 if the patch doesn't line up I know the focus is going to be off if I use that camera.

I agree with the comment above that you must take into account both adjustments. I don't think what you are trying to achieve is impossible. Rather, you must take into, and account for, all the variables.

What you are not taking into account is the linkage of the rangefinder to the lens may be bent or out of whack or the back film gate may be different or the lens to film may be different, wear n tear over the years.

What matter most is how it actually focuses at the film gate and aligns with the range finder. If the rangefinder aligns, and the film image is sharp... everything else moot.

If youy want that to be the same on both cameras, well you'll have to spend a fortune to have someone like me to rebuild the camera completely piece by piece so everything is perfecly aligned as good as new. How old is that camera?

It amazes me how people compare light meters and get all bothered about being off a stop. It's all relative and means nothnig in the real world as long as it is consistant. You are not surveying to teh tenth of an inch or leveling dynamos with it, you mearly want sharp pictures.... end result.

It's not the fault of the reapirers, it's the pickyness of the user. 6" off is nothing, make it up in DOF.

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Anyone can make a Digital print, but only a photographer can make a photograph.